Reborn in 2011, I am the chief designer of aerospace.

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Song Xingye looked away: "They've been poisoned."

"What?" Mira asked hoarsely, "Tell me the truth."

Song Xingye sighed: "It's just a minor malfunction. When their fuel generation equipment synthesizes methane from hydrogen, carbon monoxide is a byproduct. It's not a big deal, since it's naturally present in the Martian atmosphere."

Do you remember the oxygen shortage incident I had before? They encountered the same situation. The sensor of the oxygen electrolyzer was contaminated with sulfides and failed. However, because the equipment was producing fuel at full capacity at the time, the carbon monoxide concentration was seriously exceeded.

When the oxygen sensor malfunctioned, carbon monoxide leaked in, and they were poisoned to death.

"How did you know?" Han Jing asked.

"Whose responsibility is this?" Mira demanded.

Song Xingye shrugged: "Once I know where the crux of the problem lies, finding evidence will be a piece of cake."

"But whose fault is it?" Mira persisted.

Song Xingye shrugged again: "It's not anyone's fault, it was just a moment of carelessness."

"An accident? Just an accident?" She forced a comical, half-smile and looked away. "That's all?"

"It was just an accident; the same thing almost happened to us." He looked up at her and found her face covered in tears. "I'm so sorry."

Han Jing gently patted her back, then sighed, "Yes, I'm sorry."

……

"The time has come," Song Xingye broke the silence. "We must make a choice."

Everyone fell silent.

Song Xingye stretched out his clenched fist, revealing the ends of three strips of paper between his fingers.

"Draw one of the two shorter than the other two. The two who draw the longer slips of paper can take the spaceship home."

Mira shook her head.

"No need to draw," she said. "I've already decided that no matter what the draw results are, I will stay."

"What?" Song Xingye and Han Jing exclaimed almost in unison.

Mira gave a pale smile: "Surprised?"

Song Xingye was torn by an internal struggle. A voice screamed in his heart: Let her stay, let her stay, so I can go home. But his conscience also condemned him. After going through so many life-and-death situations, they were comrades-in-arms who had shared weal and woe. He couldn't just stand by and watch her commit suicide.

He spoke carefully, choosing his words precisely: "Yes, it was indeed unexpected."

He paused, then added, "But it's not fair to let you sacrifice alone; we should all share this risk."

Mira shook her head: "It has nothing to do with whether you can go back or not, it's my own choice to stay here."

"How will you survive if you stay here?" Han Jing asked.

Mira shook her hair forcefully, and that stubborn vitality instantly returned to her.

"I won't die. I'm going back to the Agamemnon base. There's plenty of food and water there, all the supplies we had for that expedition that cancelled the landing, and even a greenhouse."

Song Xingye was stunned for a moment. Yes, he thought to himself, this really works, and maybe we can really hold on.

"But you can't count on rescue..." he cautioned.

"In two years, they will send a spaceship over," she said. "In four years at most, they will launch their fourth Mars expedition, and then I will be rescued."

Her almost blindly confident tone made Song Xingye believe her for a moment. Yes, how could they possibly stand by and watch someone die? How could he have thought it was a dead end? However, reason ultimately prevailed.

"You can't pin your hopes on a vague and unrealistic rescue," he reiterated.

Mira shrugged: "Then it'll be six years. Maybe I'll get used to it and won't even want to wait for the spaceship; I might just settle down here."

"But why?" Song Xingye asked, puzzled.

“I’m quite comfortable here,” Mira said casually, “so I’ve decided to stay.”

She looked at them, taking in their stunned expressions, and suddenly burst out laughing.

"I know what you're thinking. You think I'll do anything to survive, that I'll stop at nothing to get a ticket home. That's what I thought at first too, which is why I killed Sergei, just to take his place."

Han Jing suddenly looked up, his face full of astonishment: "You—"

Mira gave a distant smile and nodded: "Yes, that's right, I killed him."

Song Xingye suddenly realized that he should have seen this sooner; Sergei's death was far too coincidental.

"Why do you do this?" he asked.

"Why do you think that is?" she retorted sharply. "Because the spaceship can only take two people back! Because that spot should have been mine, but he took it, and he caused trouble for the team the whole way. That's the reason."

"What exactly did you do?" Song Xingye asked in a deep voice.

Mira looked him straight in the eye without flinching: "I removed the battery from his emergency beacon, secretly altered the calibration data of the gyro compass, and did a few other similar little tricks. I just wanted to make sure that once he got lost, he would never find his way back. He's always been a sloppy person when checking equipment, so I figured it was only a matter of time before he got lost."

"But...why?" Han Jing asked incredulously, "Don't you feel even a little bit guilty?"

"I've said it before, someone has to die on this journey, and I've decided that person has to be him."

"I always thought it was an accident," Song Xingye murmured.

"You can call it an accident if you want," she shrugged. "After all, I didn't force him to run around at gunpoint and get lost. If thinking about it that way makes you feel better, then let's just call it an accident."

"And Commander Sheng Tianhong," a terrifying thought suddenly flashed through Song Xingye's mind, "You thought he wouldn't choose you to go back, so you killed him too! It wasn't Sergei who did it, it was you!"

Mira shook her head: "That was really a pure accident. I do wish Sheng Tianhong were dead, you know that. But I'm not that stupid. I panicked when he died. At the time, I had no idea how we were going to survive without him as our leader."

"It really was an accident..." Song Xingye slowly chewed on these words.

Mira nodded: "He decided to switch ropes at the last minute. Before I could even think of an excuse to stop him, he grabbed the rope that originally belonged to Sergei and slid straight down the cliff."

"This is unbelievable!" Song Xingye cursed. "So what are we supposed to do with you now?"

He paused for a moment, then asked with a furrowed brow, "Why did you tell us all this? You could have easily kept it a secret, why didn't you just kill one of us too? We couldn't possibly defend ourselves against it."

Mira smiled slightly and said calmly, "Because I changed my mind."

……

Taking advantage of the break, Han Jing inventoried the remaining supplies at Country A's base, while Song Xingye thoroughly checked the snowmobile left behind by Country A's expedition team. Since leaving Felisdorsa, this long journey had been full of uncertainties.

Although it remains to be seen who will stay on Mars, Mira's suggestion to return to Agamemnon Base is clearly the most sensible way out. Regardless of who ultimately stays, ample supplies and a well-functioning snowmobile are essential for survival.

Since that night, no one has mentioned Mira's shocking confession again. That day, Song Xingye was repairing the roaming vehicle alone in the small garage when Han Jing walked in. He stood aside and silently watched Song Xingye work.

It wasn't until Han Jing called his name that Song Xingye stopped what he was doing and looked up.

"Do you believe what she says?" Han Jing asked. "I'm not sure."

He bit his lower lip, his expression grave. "You think she really did those things..."

Song Xingye continued to disassemble the rover's fuel cell, carefully inspecting every seal to confirm that sulfur contamination had not seeped in and caused the power system to become brittle. This tedious mechanical work was his haven from thinking.

After a long pause, he put down the fuel cell, looked at Han Jing, and silently answered in his heart: Yes, I believe it.

"But are you sure? Are you really sure it was her?" Han Jing pressed.

Seeing Song Xingye nod, he became even more anxious. "Then what should we do with her?"

Song Xingye pondered for a moment, then countered with, "What brilliant idea do you have? Execute them on the spot?"

"No, it's not that bad," Han Jing shook his head repeatedly, "but we can..."

He was speechless. "I don't know."

"What else do you want? We can't exactly take her back to Earth for trial, can we?" Song Xingye said. "Even if we could bring her back, where would we find evidence of her crimes?"

"But we must report this to our superiors," Han Jing insisted.

Song Xingye shook his head: "Who should we report to? What should we say?"

He pointed to the desolate planet. "She's decided to stay here for life. Think about it, Mars is a giant prison, even more inescapable than Alcatraz. Do you think exiling her here forever isn't enough punishment?"

"So what should we do? Are we just going to leave her here without a second thought?"

Song Xingye sighed deeply. Yes, that was the crux of the problem. Even though Mira was a bloodthirsty killer, abandoning her alone on this dead star still felt like a betrayal.

They had relied on each other for survival and had endured such a difficult journey for so long, how could they bear to leave her alone? But did they have any other choice?

"I don't know," Song Xingye said dejectedly. "I really don't know."

He bent down and refocused his attention on the fuel cell. After a while, Han Jing quietly left the garage.

Night fell as scheduled, and the three ate their rations in silence. After the meal, they gathered in the pressurized cabin as usual. The air inside was still cool, but it was no longer as bone-chilling as before. Song Xingye found a seat and sat down, his gaze lingering on Mira's face for a long time.

Mira noticed his gaze and looked back at him. "Is there something you need?"

"Stop trying to fool me with those lies," Song Xingye said. "I need a real answer. Tell me, why do you want to stay?"

"Do you really care about the reason?" Mira scoffed. "I've already given you my ticket home. Take it. Consider the rest of your life a free gift from me. Why do you need to care why?"

"But I do care," Song Xingye said with utmost seriousness. "We've been through so much together. I can't just leave you here without a clear reason. There's no point in lying now. Tell me the truth."

"I've already told you, I've simply changed my mind."

Song Xingye shook his head: "That excuse doesn't hold water. You admit to killing two people just to go home... Now that a way out is right in front of you, you say you're not leaving. I'm not in a position to judge you, but I need to understand why."

Mira leaned back against the bulkhead and closed her eyes wearily.

"Throughout my life," she began slowly, her voice ethereal and distant, "I have always been trapped in crowds, whether in the city where I grew up, at school, or later when they transferred me to the north, I was always surrounded by people, noisy and endless."

"Even after arriving on Mars, we have never enjoyed even a moment of peace and quiet. Here, interpersonal relationships are even more crowded and suffocating than on Earth. There is not even room to turn around in the living quarters, and the rover is packed with people."

We were like grasshoppers tied to the same string, always sticking together. Even when I thought I could finally go out for some fresh air on my own, the base's incessant commands would still come through the communication channel on time, a persistent reminder that I wasn't alone.

"You know what? At first, this wasteland really terrified me, with its vastness and emptiness that seemed to swallow everything. But as we went further and further away, when the aircraft crashed and you still forced us to continue on foot, everything changed."

During that long march to the death, although we traveled together, each of us was a solitary soul, utterly alone. It was then that I had an epiphany: yes, I could not only endure loneliness, but I was also madly in love with it.

Here, I can be my truest self. The wind and snow won't question my origins, the rocks won't probe my heart, and this vast sky won't care who I am.

"I'm not afraid to tell you, I've spent my whole life playing a person who isn't me at all. I've lived with this mask for so long that I've even forgotten who I really am."

"I'm done."

"So, I've decided to stay. I don't care if I can go back to Earth, and I don't need that ticket at all. That crowded world means nothing to me. I've changed my mind. I like this quiet planet, and I just want to be alone."

……

On the distant horizon, Mars's sun, a deep blue, slowly rises, surrounded by a dazzling golden edge and a double halo. The daytime is quiet and still, with the snow covered in red dust silently reflecting the pale yellow light of the sky.

Immediately afterwards, the snowfield was illuminated.

The engine ignition was like triggering a massive avalanche, with violent airflow surging and pouring outwards like a tidal wave, instantly bursting forth with dazzling and scorching light, and stirring up a churning cloud of steam.

The interior of the cloud was illuminated by the tail flames, revealing an almost sacred blood-red hue.

Supported by the dazzling flames, the heavy arrow rose from the ground amidst billowing smoke. The entire process was silent and magnificent on the desolate wasteland where no air could carry sound.